Whistling Swans
by Mary Oliver

Do you bow your head when you pray or do you look
up into that blue space?
Take your choice, prayers fly from all directions.
And don’t worry about what language you use,
God no doubt understands them all.
Even when the swans are flying north and making
such a ruckus of noise, God is surely listening
and understanding.
Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul.
But isn’t the return of spring and how it
springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?
Yes, I know, God’s silence never breaks, but is
that really a problem?
There are thousands of voices, after all.
And furthermore, don’t you imagine (I just suggest it)
that the swans know about as much as we do about
the whole business?
So listen to them and watch them, singing as they fly.
Take from it what you can.

Garden #6 - The Large Rain Garden

When the current sanctuary was built around 1990, the building code required a basin that would temporarily detain water running off from the upper parking lot to prevent flooding in the neighborhood during heavy rain storms. Despite some very steep slopes the basin was mowed for many years. In 2008  flowers and grasses were planted here and it became a rain garden. Shrubs and trees define its borders, but the slopes and bottom of the basin are a riot of bloom during the summer and fall. A carefully maintained path allows visitors to immerse themselves in this semi-wild garden.